Inside the Castle: Law and the Family in 20th Century America - Softcover

"This wonderful history of twentieth-century family law blows like a strong fresh wind through the fog of myth that pervades debates over traditional families and their decline. Deeply learned but also clear and lively, this book explains how the law of marriage, divorce, parentage, and inheritance has responded to social changes that have eroded old bonds of intimacy and dependence while creating new ones. This is simply the best overview of family law in print."--Robert W. Gordon, Yale Law School

"Grossman and Friedman provide the first complete and reliable survey of American family law in the twentieth century. Along the way, they offer an unusually expansive portrait of how the law has changed and suggestive explorations of many of the recent transformations to American family life. Marriage, divorce, sex, domestic violence, care, and the intergenerational transmission of wealth all fall within their view. Inside the Castle will be the essential starting point for anyone interested in learning about the subject for years to come."--Hendrik Hartog, Princeton University

"This is a bold, ambitious, and remarkably comprehensive book. Moving beyond the legal community and providing a window into the actual functioning of America's diverse families, this book shows that family law isn't so much generated by judges and legislators, but by ordinary and extraordinary individuals."--Steven Mintz, Columbia University

"Effectively organized and wonderfully accessible, this engrossing book illuminates the enormous transformations experienced by families, and the laws governing them, in the twentieth century. I know of no other book that provides such a broad overview and I am deeply impressed by its stellar scholarship."--Naomi Cahn, George Washington University Law School